Subtext presents a small window onto the diversity of form and the significance of writing in art. Works by six international and Australian artists who are interested in the ways in which writing activates practice were invited to participate, with works that suggest the wealth of ways in which text is an integral part of the creative process, and a force for producing or suggesting content or negotiating subject matter.

Writing is pervasive across the practice of Pablo Helguera, and in the performance scripts and installations of Tris Vonna-Michell. Audiences are not generally privy to the notated research that comprises the background to Helen Johnson’s images, and know little of Darren Sylvester’s short narratives, which have taken different forms including contextual scenarios for photographs to song lyrics. Vernon Ah Kee’s agit-prop-style statements, found and penned by the artist, have been a consistent thread in his practice. Similarly, extensive texts authored by Lily Hibberd have been central to a practice that she has manifest variously as performance, and more recently as books, and in audio and video works.

Subtext is presented by un Projects, the publisher of un Magazine and is the second stage of events generated to further investigate the manifold approaches to writing undertaken by artists within studio and exhibition practice.

VERNON AH KEE was born in North Queensland and is of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidindji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples, and lives and works in Brisbane. Ah Kee received his doctorate in Visual Arts from Queensland College of the Arts in 2007. His work is primarily a critique of Australian popular culture, specifically the black/white dichotomy. This subject appears most literally in a conceptual use of text that combines a combative writing style with a strong visual sense, and takes other forms in drawings and video works. Ah Kee has exhibited in group and solo shows, and currently lectures on contemporary Australian Indigenous art at Queensland College of Arts. Solo exhibitions have included Artspace, Sydney and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane in 2008. His work was included in the 2008 Biennale of Sydney and at the 2009 Venice Biennale he was represented in Once Removed, a curated group show of Australia of early career artists.

Vernon Ah Kee is represented by Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

PABLO HELGUERA was born in Mexico City, and lives in New York. His work ranges from performance art, video, and public art, involving historical research, fiction, humor, and criticism. Some of his past art projects have included a phonographic archive of dying languages, creating scripted symposia performed by actors (unbeknownst to the audience), creating work accredited to fictional artists and composers, building a memory theatre, and founding a research institute exploring the global effect of Latin American soap operas.

Helguera’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, El Museo del Barrio, the Bronx Museum, the Havana and Liverpool Biennials, and in many other international museums and galleries. He previously held the position of Head of Public Programs at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1998-2005). Helguera has written a dozen plays, monologues, and performances, and is the author of the books Endingness (2005), The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art Style (Jorge Pinto Books, 2007) and The Witches of Tepoztlán (and other Unpublished Operas) (Jorge Pinto Books, 2007).

Pablo Helguera is represented by Enrique Guerrero Gallery, Mexico City.

LILY HIBBERD is a Melbourne-based artist whose practice encompasses both visual and text-based work in a range of forms, often exploring perceptions of memory, time and contemporary narratives. Her texts and scripts are frequently central to installations that also employ moving images, painting, photography, performance and sound to dramatic effect..
Recent exhibitions include Deadman Monologue at Canberra Contemporary Art Spaces (2009), First Love at GRANTPIRRIE gallery Sydney (2009), Endless Summer: sunglasses and the spectacle of vision at the Experimental Art Foundation (2008), Adelaide; Bordertown at Artspace, Sydney. Hibberd was the founding editor of un Magazine and managing editor 2004–2006, and holds a PhD from Monash University.

HELEN JOHNSON is interested in art as a social tool and as a means of inciting discussion and raising questions. Her art practice centres on the making of meaning using painting, and also includes writing and curating. Johnson is currently working towards a PhD in Fine Art at Monash University. In 2011 she will undertake residencies at Artspace, Sydney and the Australia Council studio in London.

Recent projects include Universal Remote at Y3K Gallery, An Effort of Memory at the Centre for Contemporary Photography and the curation of Love in the Mourning at Death be Kind (forthcoming). Johnson has held exhibitions in Norway, Italy, Germany, Malaysia and Australia, and has work in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Art in Australia, Artbank and the City of Yarra.

She is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.

DARREN SYLVESTER completed a BA in Fine Art Photography at Charles Sturt University and a Master of Fine Art at Monash University. Since 1996 his work has been seen in more than 15 solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions. He is best known for his carefully staged and emotive photographic tableaux. His artistic practice also encompasses video, sculpture, and performance-based work. The self-titled LP Darren Sylvester 39 minutes was released through Unstable Ape/ Remote Control Records in 2009.

Solo exhibitions include Darren Sylvester, Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney (2009); Darren Sylvester: Our Future Was Ours, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (2008); and I Want To Carve a Future, Devour Everything, Become Something, Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney (2006). His work was included in the group exhibitions Wonderlust, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2008) and Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008). Sylvester’s work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Darren Sylvester is represented by Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney and Johnston Gallery, Western Australia.

TRIS VONNA-MICHELL lives in the United Kingdom and Sweden. Vonna-Michell is best known for his installation-based practice and story-telling performances. An unconventional storyteller, Vonna-Michell’s energetic yet enigmatic narratives function as chapters within non-linear tales that blur fact and fiction, and cultural and personal identities. His practice explores the possibility of recording and transmitting history through the spoken and written word, tracing the associative complexities of how rumours arise and histories are written. For his first exhibition in Australia Vonna-Michell will construct a situation using text, spoken word, objects and dissolving images typical of his layered tableau.

Born in Southend on Sea, UK, Vonna-Michell graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2005 and completed studies at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main. Recent solo exhibitions include No more racing in circles — just pacing within lines of a rectangle at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2010); Finding Chopin: Endnotes, Jeu de Paume Satellite, Paris (2009) and Tris Vonna-Michell, Witte de With, Rotterdam. His work was included in Art Cologne/Open Space (with Cabinet, London) in 2009, The Generational: Younger than Jesus, New Museum, New York (2009) and This World & Nearer Ones, Creative Time, New York (2009).